Wednesday, 5 March 2008

Ikan Bakar

I love "ikan bakar", especially "ikan pari " (stingray). This recipe was given to me by HB's aunt & since then I never did try other "ikan bakar" recipe besides hers. Normally, "ikan bakar" is grilled & the condiment is prepared separately. The most basic condiment for "ikan bakar" is merely soy sauce, pounded garlic, fresh chillies & lime juice combined together. This recipe is however different. The sauce is prepared in a form of a paste & grilled together with the fish. The savoury taste of the sauce blended with the delicate flesh of the fish will definitely make you salivating. Enough said! Let's start cooking...

First of all is to blend together shallots, garlics, ginger, lemon grass, turmeric leaves, bird eye chillies and fresh red chillies.

Saute the blended ingredients with cooking oil.

Next is to add in a little bit of tamarind juice for a sour taste & also to make the texture of the paste thicker.

Add sugar & salt to taste. Here is the sauce that will play condiment to my fish.

The next step to do is to marinate the fish. I prefer stingray to any other fish when it comes to "ikan bakar".

I choose to use banana leaves to wrap the marinated fish. However, aluminium foil is also okay but make sure that it is suitable for grilling.

As it is rather tedious to prepare a grill, I simply use a pan. But better opt for an old pan as the so called grilling process might stain your pan.